


Communicating Exterminators

by iboughtyouchicken (haleingoutside)



Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: background Balthazar Jones, background Hero Duke, background John Donaldson, background Pedro Donaldson, beadick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-14
Updated: 2015-05-14
Packaged: 2018-03-30 12:59:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3937705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haleingoutside/pseuds/iboughtyouchicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of Katherine A. Jones's "Spiders and Scaredy-cats" from Beadick's point of view. When Beatrice gets a call from Hero about a problematic spider, much hilarity ensues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Communicating Exterminators

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KatherineAJones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatherineAJones/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Spiders and Scaredy-cats](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3912859) by [KatherineAJones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatherineAJones/pseuds/KatherineAJones). 



> This is dedicated to Katherine A. Jones. Congratulations on totally slaying your AP World exam, love! I know you did great and I'm so proud of you for all that you've accomplished, both with the exam and for the entire year. I can't wait for a summer of fangirling and feels and LLL. Love you!
> 
> Love,  
> iboughtyouchicken (Haley)

Ben and Bea were driving to date night when they got the call.

Bea had been talking about their “Avengers-movie-just-the-two-of-us-our-friends-are-driving-me-insane” night all week, while simultaneously trying to act like she wasn’t talking about it so she could avoid sounding like a lovestruck idiot. Ever since the gang had all moved back to Auckland after uni and various travels, there had been far too many dinners, picnics, lunches, and evening walks as a group. Though Ben and Bea really loved their friends, they really did, it was all starting to seem like a little much. They had been craving an evening all to themselves for a long time.

“I feel like I haven’t actually sat down and talked to you in ages,” Bea said as she leaned her head back against the headrest.

“We have not been communicating, that’s for sure,” Ben agreed with a smirk. Playfully slapping her boyfriend’s arm, Bea was then distracted by her phone vibrating inside her pocket.

“It’s Hero,” she said, puzzled, after pulling her phone out. “That’s funny, I specifically told her not to call me tonight.”

Ben quickly glanced at his girlfriend and saw the tension that had already begun to grow out of her worry. Bea had always been protective of Hero, and even things like a little phone call could concern her and make her freak out for a full half-hour. “Why don’t you answer it?” he suggested, and Bea quickly accepted the call.

“Hey, Bea, we have a problem…” Hero’s voice came through the other end.

It probably took longer for Bea to explain that Hero really wasn’t inconveniencing them (though she was) and that she really didn’t mind hearing the issue (though she did) than it took for Hero to explain the problem at hand: she couldn’t kill the spider, Balthazar couldn’t kill the spider, and they were trapped on a table quivering in fear.

“You really don’t have to come help if you don’t want to, I mean, I know that you were looking forward to date night and all, so I’ll just call the neighbors--”

“No!” the faint voice of Pedro cried out in the background. “Bea, Ben, you have to come save us!”

Beatrice sighed as the movie theater parking lot came into view down the road. She quickly mouthed “spider” to Ben, who nodded understandingly. “We’ll be right there, hang on,” she said into the phone and hung up quickly.

She and Ben both made long, bleurgh-like frustrated noises at the idea of postponing date night. “And I was so looking forward to communicating…” Ben lamented, succeeding in his effort to make his girlfriend laugh despite their annoyance. He pulled into a parking lot to turn around and head in the opposite direction back to their friends in need, but abruptly braked when Bea gasped.

“What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

“We need bug spray, don’t we?” It was an innocent enough question, but her tone of voice was very conspiratorial and a little bit sexy, and Ben had to resist the urge to start making out with her then and there.

“Yes…”

“What say you and I still try to make this into a night of fun and excellent communication?” Bea said, pointing at the hardware store across the parking lot.

“What did you have in mind?” Ben’s voice sounded like he couldn’t tell whether he was more scared of the woman in the seat next to him or in love with her. It was a tone Beatrice knew well.

“Just drive over and put the car in park.”

* * *

Less than five minutes later, they were zooming through the aisles of the hardware store, “communicating” back and forth by shouting to each other from separate rows.

“I cannot find the bloody exterminator suits!”

“We don’t say bloody in New Zealand!”

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m British, then!”

“Have you found the bug spray?”

“Aisle 4!”

“Don’t let us forget it--WAIT! I FOUND THEM!”

Bea wasn’t sure she and Ben would be able to find adult size exterminators’ outfits at the hardware store, but it was as good a bet as any and they didn’t exactly have time to order some online. Ben rounded the corner to aisle 19 to meet his girlfriend, who was holding the suits up to her body, which would have to substitute for trying them on.

“I know I’m not supposed to say bloody but I bloody love you,” he said as he leaned forward to give her a quick kiss.

“Now come on,” Bea commanded, “let’s go find the most official looking cans of bug spray and go save my cousin!”

* * *

They couldn’t stop bursting into laughter on the car ride to save their friends. Ben still couldn’t get over the fact that his brilliant, brilliant girlfriend had come up with such a brilliant, brilliant idea, and he would occasionally check the backseat just to make sure their exterminators’ supplies were still there. This made Bea laugh, which in turn made Ben laugh, which made them come a little closer to wrecking the car than they would have liked.

After quickly slipping the exterminator suits on over their clothes at stoplights, they were prepared for their exaggeratedly epic rescue mission. Bea nearly tripped over Ben in all the excitement on their way up the stairs, which of course caused another round of laughter, but they finally made it to the front door with too large cans of bug spray on their backs. “Ready?” Ben asked.

“Ready,” Bea answered seriously.

“In case I forgot to tell you, it’s things like this that make me think we really are the greatest couple in the universe.”

“Oh, absolutely.”

They smiled and nodded at each other, and then Ben flung open the door. “WHERE IS THIS SPIDER?”


End file.
